Page 158 of A Dance of Shadows

He’d prefer that I stay asleep, but not, I think, because he cares about the healing necessity of my rest.

The emperor has already gotten started on his celebration of his heir’s birth. He holds both the stem of a goblet and the neck of a wine bottle between his fingers. The goblet sloshes dark liquid over its lip as he passes it to his other hand before tossing back a gulp.

He takes several steps toward my bed, topping up the glass as he comes. With his careless swing of the bottle, more wine patters across the rug.

Linus stops near the foot of the bed and simply contemplates me for a moment so long my skin starts to itch. He takes another drink. Then he sets the bottle down on the rug to free one hand.

I don’t think I want to let him get any closer if I can help it. I stir beneath the covers as if I’m just waking and blink blearily. Linus freezes again.

Still keeping my knife hidden, I lift my head. I make my words come out sluggish to continue the impression that I’ve only just woken. “Husband. How good to see you. Is it morning?”

Linus chuckles. “It is. Such a wonderful day, isn’t it? I get to welcome ‘my’ child and shower my wife with everything she deserves.”

He waves the goblet, sending more wine flying. Then his gaze hardens. He tosses the goblet right over the footboard, heedless of the liquid splattering the covers there, and strides toward me. “Let me wrap you in the most loving of embraces, wife.”

His demand sounds far more like a threat than an offer of affection. My teeth grit.

Just as he reaches the bedside, I sit up. My knife flashes in the space between us. “I think you’d better stay there and appreciate me from afar, husband.”

Linus glances at the knife and simply laughs again, as if I’m brandishing a child’s toy at him. “Oh, that’s perfect. You’ve even given me a weapon. I thought I’d strangle you, but stabbing might be more fun. Isn’t it horrible that some villain broke into your rooms and savaged you before I could fight him off?”

With those last vicious words, he lunges at me.

I slash at him with the knife, but the benefit of skill isn’t on my side. Other than my few sparring sessions with Raul toprepare for Sabrelle’s confirmation rite, I’ve only learned the basics of self-defense.

Linus might not be the more martially inclined of the twins, but he’s still gone through plenty of the combat training designed to prepare the emperor to “conquer all.” He weaves around my jabbing blade, barely seeming to care that I manage to nick his forearm. His hand clamps around my wrist.

Then he twists my arm so sharply my fingers spasm apart with a lance of pain.

Hissing through my teeth, I snatch after the fallen knife. Linus strikes out with his other arm. His punch slams my head into the headboard.

As my mind spins, I strike out at him with the meager weapons I do still have—fingernails, knuckles, elbows. My legs tangle in the covers as I try to wrench them free to bring them to bear too.

Linus shoves me down on the mattress and grabs the knife. I manage to smack at his arm hard enough to throw off his first stab. The blade scrapes across my reinforced undershirt, splitting strands of the fabric—but I can only imagine how deep it might have dug if not for the reinforcing metal.

I don’t have time to be grateful. Linus pins my arm and raises the knife again, grinning like a maniac.

He’s aiming for my throat this time. I squirm against his hold, but he braces his knee against my abdomen with enough force to send an agonizing throb through my whole torso.

That would have been my final moment if I didn’t have one last ally on my side.

With a yowl, Sprite launches herself from the spot she’d moved to at the corner of the bed. She hurtles into the side of Linus’s face in a flurry of claws and gnashing teeth.

Linus yelps and swats at her, the knife tumbling from his grasp in his surprise. I manage to knee him in the gut. As he teeters off me, I shove away both him and the covers.

My husband gropes at the frantic cat, who’s dug her claws into his cheek, his neck, the collar of his shirt. When she sinks her tiny fangs into his eyebrow, he jerks sideways and slams a fist into her skull.

My heart flips over. I yank back my leg and drive my heel into his back with all the strength I can rally.

Linus lets out an oof and topples off the far side of the bed. Unfortunately, he wrenches Sprite off him as he falls. There’s a feline squawk of pain as he pummels her against the floor.

I paw through the bedcovers and snatch up my knife. Through the panicked thunder of my pulse, my gaze darts to the door. But I’d still have to get past Linus to reach it.

And a burble of sound behind me reminds me of one precious thing I couldn’t possibly leave behind to face his murderous rampage.

I scramble off the far side of the bed and back up to the cradle. Coraya twitches in her blanket, her eyes still closed but her tiny features tensed as if she’s picking up on the fight.

I’m not leaving this room without my daughter.

---